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Insurance Blogging – Give It A Try – Five Easy Steps – One Secret

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Insurance Blogging – Easy To Start – Hard To Keep Going

My own experience with insurance blogging started in 2007.  I attended a conference in Atlanta on social media when it really started rolling along in 2008.  That is when I decided to start blogging very heavily and to have a weekly newsletter.

Let us get you a toolkit started to start your insurance blogging hobby or career.   Once you have set up your framework, the blogging time becomes easier.   I am not talking about Facebook or Twitter blogging.  These next five sections discuss how to establish an insurance blogging website or on any subject of your choice.

playing card five of clubs insurance blogging
(Wikimedia Commons License – Adrian Kennard

I try to avoid free services in my recommendations.  Even on the internet, you get what you pay for every time.    BTW, I am not making a cent off the recommendations.

1. Establish a Website Name and URL

If you are going to do insurance blogging, then you would want to choose a website name.  Think about what you want to cover.  If you want to rank in Google and Bing, then the website address is crucial.   Go to whois.com to see if the website name you want is taken.  If not, then buy and register it ASAP.   If you are serious about your endeavor, then buy the .com .org and .net versions of the name so that someone does not squat on your original URL.

I see an ad on the page that says WordPress website hosting for $4.28 a month for a year.  That is cheaper than a latte at your local coffee establishment.

2. Build Your Insurance Blogging Website or Have Someone Build It For You

Many website builders are on the internet.  Do not let this make you shy away from building your website.  Since 2016, website builders have been made so much easier.   PC Magazine – my go-to website for rankings has the website builders ranked – look for PC Editor’s Choice.  Some of the builders have domain name registration.  This combines the first and second steps into one.

Construction man insurance blogging on the ladder
Public Domain – (NIOSH)

One area to consider is what happens if you decide to move your insurance blogging site to a new host.  Some website builders make that extremely difficult.

If you feel overwhelmed, you can contact the company that built our website and then updated it at least seven times.  The company is Redwood Productions.  They are on this website.  https://redwoodproductions.com/   

Almost any type of promotional material including websites can be purchased there.  That is a more expensive option, but worth the money if you are serious about starting a website for blogging.

3. Read Many Info Sources Each Day or Request Their Weekly Edition

When you first begin insurance blogging, you will want to read many sources of information each day.   I read approximately 10 per day.   No, I do not read all the articles.  Reading the headlines saves time.  Most websites are OK with you writing about an existing article on their website.

Person reading a insurance blogging book
Wikimedia Commons – Christopher Michel – Ladakh

Make sure that you provide a link to their article.  Writing about other articles is a great way to start your insurance blogging. Google thinks of plagiarism as the worst offense.  Getting Google rankings to forgive plagiarism takes months if not years.

You can find a list of the articles that I read every day/each week in this article.

4. Just Start Writing – The Hardest Part Is The Resistance

I have struggled with writer’s block.  I think it is more of burnout than a block.

One of the better books on overcoming writer’s block can be found here – The War of Art.  This is a short read on how to overcome starting that first article and when you cannot seem to muster the strength and attention to writing an article.

If you do not mind reading an old book, eBay has many copies on the secondary/used marketplace.  I read it last week – totally worth it.

The first article was the hardest to write back in 2007. Today’s article was hard to write.   After I finished the first one, and after I finish this article – they were not that hard to compose for the blog readers.

5. A Few Tools For Insurance Blogging That I Use

Hand tools insurance blogging on the floor
Public Domain – M338

A few tools that I use for my blogging are:

  • Yoast – free and Pro copies.  Millions of bloggers use this tool.   The Pro copy is worth it if you want to be a serious insurance blogger.  Getting a green light is the key goal.
  • Grammarly – free and Pro version.  If you want other websites to re-publish your articles, they need to be grammatically perfect as possible.
  • Microsoft Word’s Editor – I always copy the blog, drop it into Word, and run the editor.  It is like a second opinion on Grammarly.  This is not their spellchecker.  Word 2016 has the editor included.
  • Microsoft Word’s Dictate – another tool for dictating your articles if you are not the best typist.

The secret that I promised is that many articles are published by ghostwriters.  If you can afford a ghostwriter, then you can pay to have articles written for you.  Two or three of my contemporaries have hired ghostwriters in the past.   There are no ghost-written articles in this blog – my worker’s comp insurance blogging is all original material.

Good luck if you start your own blog.

 

©J&L Risk Management Inc Copyright Notice

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4 Responses

  1. I find I don’t put blogging high enough on my priority list, so instead of having a post a week, I end up with a post a month.
    Your suggestions to read widely (and credit the source) and just start writing are right on the mark.

    Thanks!

  2. Gary,

    Thanks for commenting. The book that I recommended in the article – The War of Art helped me with posting more often during the pandemic. The easiest way to get the blogging rolling along is by writing on someone else’s article. Be sure to link to the article you are referencing so that Google does not penalize you for copying the info.

    Feel free to comment anytime.

Related...

James J Moore - Workers Comp Expert

Raleigh, NC, United States

About The Author...

James founded a Workers’ Compensation consulting firm, J&L Risk Management Consultants, Inc. in 1996. J&L’s mission is to reduce our clients’ Workers Compensation premiums by using time-tested techniques. J&L’s claims, premium, reserve and Experience Mod reviews have saved employers over $9.8 million in earned premiums over the last three years. J&L has saved numerous companies from bankruptcy proceedings as a result of insurance overpayments.

James has over 27 years of experience in insurance claims, audit, and underwriting, specializing in Workers’ Compensation. He has supervised, and managed the administration of Workers’ Compensation claims, and underwriting in over 45 states. His professional experience includes being the Director of Risk Management for the North Carolina School Boards Association. He created a very successful Workers’ Compensation Injury Rehabilitation Unit for school personnel.

James’s educational background, which centered on computer technology, culminated in earning a Masters of Business Administration (MBA); an Associate in Claims designation (AIC); and an Associate in Risk Management designation (ARM). He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a licensed financial advisor. The NC Department of Insurance has certified him as an insurance instructor. He also possesses a Bachelors’ Degree in Actuarial Science.

LexisNexis has twice recognized his blog as one of the Top 25 Blogs on Workers’ Compensation. J&L has been listed in AM Best’s Preferred Providers Directory for Insurance Experts – Workers Compensation for over eight years. He recently won the prestigious Baucom Shine Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer contributions to the area of risk management and safety. James was recently named as an instructor for the prestigious Insurance Academy.

James is on the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the North Carolina Mid-State Safety Council. He has published two manuals on Workers’ Compensation and three different claims processing manuals. He has also written and has been quoted in numerous articles on reducing Workers’ Compensation costs for public and private employers. James publishes a weekly newsletter with 7,000 readers.

He currently possess press credentials and am invited to various national Workers Compensation conferences as a reporter.

James’s articles or interviews on Workers’ Compensation have appeared in the following publications or websites:

  • Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS)
  • Entrepreneur Magazine
  • Bloomberg Business News
  • WorkCompCentral.com
  • Claims Magazine
  • Risk & Insurance Magazine
  • Insurance Journal
  • Workers Compensation.com
  • LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites
  • Various trade publications

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